Facebook’s journalism, ads and garbage
Facebook presents many risks to the future of journalism. While the platform offers incredible access to billions of people, it is also a powerful delivery vehicle for garbage. We saw in the last election just how easy it was for bad actors to create false news and then pay Facebook to deliver it alongside professionally created content.
As part of an effort to combat this flaw in their system, Facebook recently decided to start labeling genuine political news and opinion as political “advertising.” This is not only misguided, but plays into dangerous anti-journalism narratives around the world that present real risks to reporters and local news publishers.
Oddly, the problem starts with Facebook’s own “pay to see” system. Professional news publishers often pay Facebook to “uplift” their articles so that more readers see them in the news feed. (If you don’t pay to uplift content, then you simply lose audience to Macedonian teenagers and other purveyors of fake news who do pay.) Facebook’s new policy requires that any uplifted content that refers to politics or policy now be labeled as political advertising.
This is bad for journalism for a whole host of reasons, but the biggest problem is that it implies that the reporting and opinion of professional journalists is not a reflection of editorial judgment, but is instead designed solely to manipulate readers for money. This is a message that will be embraced by the dictators and authoritarian governments who love to denounce real reporters and actual journalism.
By choosing to label news, opinion and endorsements as political advertising, Facebook is acting as a regulator of journalism and free speech — well beyond what any democratic government does (and many non-democratic ones). Facebook claims that it is doing this for the sake of “transparency,” but real news publishers have no problem with transparency. We have a long history of being open and clear about what we do and how we do it. Facebook, in contrast, employs secret algorithmic decisionmaking that is not transparent to anyone.
The News Media Alliance, along with a number of other publishing and journalism groups, has suggested a way out for Facebook. They need to work with us to identify publishers who meet basic standards — like actually paying professional reporters and regularly producing fact-based content. (Given the millions of other content distinctions that Facebook makes every day, it wouldn’t be that hard to do.) They can then exclude this content from anything called “advertising." In a perfect world, Facebook’s algorithms would also highlight professional content over things produced by, say, Russian bots. But that would require them to genuinely value the quality of the content on their platform.
This entire issue is proof, once again, that the news media industry needs an antitrust safe harbor to allow us to collectively negotiate with the platforms. Only when we’re all on the same page and can use the strength that comes from our numbers can we expect the platforms to give quality news the fair treatment it deserves.
David Chavern is president and CEO of the News Media Alliance, a trade association representing about 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. Follow him on Twitter: @NewsCEO.